Respect for Postees

Talking about gated communities in my last blog it reminded me of the problem facing the Royal Mail – not only in getting into gated communities but delivering to remote locations through difficult and sometimes non-existent letter boxes.

When Roland Hill introduced the world’s first universal postal service in 1837 it was revolutionary. For the first time, anyone in Britain could post letters to any other part of the country for one (old) penny and it guaranteed at least one delivery of mail for every household or business every day except Sunday. This rapidly increased the volume of post and brought many social and economic benefits to our people.

However, I think that just as the Royal Mail has an obligation to provide a universal service we, the people send and expect to receive letters, also have an obligation.

Our first obligation is to use robust envelopes and packaging. Our second is to provide a clear and concise address (number of property, street name, village/town and postcode) along with a sender’s address on the reverse. Our third is to provide a letter box at reasonable delivery height through which a letter may be posted comfortably. To these I would add that there should be no barrier from the highway to the letter box.

I have done lots of delivering in my time and I cannot understand why Postcomm does not rule that if you want to receive letters then you must provide appropriate means for safe and practical delivery.

I would, for example, bring in a law that said in ten years time:
• No postee will be expected to walk more than ten metres from a highway in order to deliver a letter.
• Any gate would open towards the property by pressure alone. The gate will also spring close (or it may be left open by the postee).
• The letter box would be sited between 600mm and 1,800mm of the ground.
• The letter box would only require the pressure of the letter to open. The hand need not touch the letter box to operate it
• I lean to require a letter box to accept a C4 envelope but perhaps a C5 would do for older houses so that they could remain in keeping with the design of the door.
• Also no dogs or similar animals could interfere with the postee’s journey on the property.
• The Royal Mail need only collect mail from one location in any parish (although in practice if the volume was there it would collect from more than one place).

Each year I would take a step from the position we have now (which is the Royal Mail must deliver unless your garden is full of dogs known to have attacked postees, the path is on a cliff edge, and, you live on an island without a ferry service) to the one I describe above.

So if you lived in a gated street you would have to provide a letter box at the end of your street or not receive your post. That’s seems fair enough to me.